‘Taxi Driver’ Writer Paul Schrader To Pen Russian Ballerina Drama

While Paul Schrader currently attempts to get financing for his next directorial effort, the Bret Easton Ellis-scripted drama The Canyons, he will also be penning another project. Coming from Cannes, The Wrap reports that the man behind Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, The Mosquito Coast, American Gigolo, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters and more is set to pen a new project.

Schrader has been commissioned by the Kremlin, to script a biopic focusing on Mathilde Kschessinska, the famous Russian ballerina, who also played mistress to the country’s last tsar, Nicholas II. To attain a larger audience, the project will include an American cast and be shot in English. Check out Schrader’s comments below.

“Kschessinska’s life is a powerful metaphor for Russian culture and evokes the best of Russian arts. She was a first native prima ballerina in the country that saw the highest achievement in that art form. She was not only a witness to the critical period of Russian history, she was a player in that history, only to be thrown aside.”

With Schrader’s last two projects, 2008’s Adam Resurrected and 2007’s The Walker, not quite living up to his earlier work, I hope his passion for this subject can foster some new life into the legendary Hollywood figure. As The Canyons is well on its way to acheving its Kickstarter goal, expect that to be the next project we actually see from Schrader.